Mike Chang
Mike Chang is an active member of the Glee club and the football team. Also known as "Other Asian", he is considered New Directions' best male dancer. As of Audition, Mike Chang is dating Tina Cohen-Chang. In the second season, he has a more important role and extra character development. Biography 'Season One' In this season, almost nothing was known about Mike Chang at all. Although he is a member of the school football team, Mike Chang does not appear until Preggers, in which Kurt Hummel joins the football team. Kurt, who for years has been a target of bullying by the football team, shocks them when he reveals himself to be an excellent place kicker, thanks to his years of dance training. The coach decides to use Kurt's unusual training for the rest of the team, and has Kurt teach them the dance moves for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).", this makes a lot of sense. Much to everyone's surprise, the dance training works spectacularly allowing them not only to become more fluid in their movements, but also allowing them to shock the rival school by performing the number on the field, and so, dancing wins the day. After the football game, Mike Chang finds that he enjoyed dancing and performing and he along with Noah Puckerman and Matt Rutherford decides to join the group, despite it being social suicide. It is later revealed in Vitamin D and Throwdown that Mike Chang is a spectacular dancer in his own right, able to perform complicated lock-breakdown dance steps. In Vitamin D, Mike Chang performs background vocals and stellar dance moves in "It's My Life/Confessions Part II". In Throwdown, when Sue steps up as co-director of New Directions, she recruits Mike Chang (whom she calls 'Other Asian') and the other minority students into an "elite Glee Club". Mike Chang performs background vocals in "Ride Wit Me and "Keep Holding On", and dances in "Hate On Me". However, Mike Chang, Puck, Matt and Finn Hudson are later forced to choose between football and Glee by Coach Tanaka in Mash-Up. Much to the Glee Group's surprise, Matt, Mike Chang and Puck decide to rejoin Glee and forego their spots on the football team. Thankfully, Coach Tanaka reconsiders the separation, and allows the boys to return. In Ballad, Mike Chang teams up with Tina Cohen-Chang, who using Sue Sylvester old nickname for him, calls him "Other Asian". Mike Chang looks somewhat taken aback by the title. At the end of the episode, he performs "Lean On Me" with the rest of the club for Finn and Quinn. In Mattress, Mike Chang performs a series of dance-like acrobatics on over-stuffed mattresses when the Club is hired to do a mattress commercial. The commercial however takes away the group's amateur standing, and requires Will to stand down as director in order to all them to compete in sectionals. When the group at last reaches Sectionals, they are horrified to realize that Sue has given the opposing schools their set-list. Mike Chang is seen buying popcorn before the performance, and silently admonishing Jacob Ben Israel for dancing to the Jane Addams Academy girls' rendition of "Proud Mary". With Finn taking over command of the Glee Club in Will's absence, Finn has Mike Chang, Brittany, Santana and Matt come up with an impromptu dance routine, as they are considered the four best dancers in the group. He performs background vocals in "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "My Life Would Suck Without You". In "Hell-O", Mike Chang is seen in several glee club rehearsals. He dances with Rachel in "Gives You Hell" and sings background vocals in "Hello Goodbye". Later, in "Power Of Madonna", Mike Chang watches "Express Yourself" with the rest of the male members, all of which except for Kurt looking bored. He later sings background vocals in "What It Feels Like For a Girl" (rather enthusiastically) and "Like a Prayer". In "Home", Mike Chang and the glee club go to a roller rink because the auditorium is unavailable. He joins Mercedes in singing "Beautiful", and sings background vocals in "Home". In "Dream On", Mike Chang performs background vocals and dances in Artie's dream sequence of "Safety Dance". Artie and Tina were about to perform a tap dance routine together, but Artie persuades Tina to choose another male member of the Glee Club to do his part. Tina chooses Mike Chang and the two dance together to "Dream A Little Dream" with stunning dance moves, while Artie sings the lead. Later on, Mike Chang enthusiastically watches the rendition of "Bad Romance" done by the New Directions girls and Kurt. He then sings background in "Shout It Out Loud" and "Beth", and defends Kurt with the rest of New Directions from Azimio and Karofsky. After finding out the Sue Sylvester is going to be a judge for Regionals in "Journey", the Glee Club fears that they may end up getting last place. At Regionals, Mike Chang performs with New Directions in "Faithfully", "Anyway You Want It/Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'", and "Don't Stop Believin'". After rushing to the hospital with Quinn as she goes into labor, the Glee Clubbers return to the competition only to find that they've been given last place, and that the club is disbanded. The devastated and despondent group performs "To Sir, With Love" to thank Mr. Schuester, before which Mike Chang states that he was afraid to dance outside of his room. After it is revealed that Glee has one more year, New Directions is ecstatic, and listens to Mr. Schue and Puck perform "Over The Rainbow". 'Season Two' It is revealed in "Audition" that over summer vacation, Mike Chang and Tina began working as counselors at "Asian Camp" where they attempted to teach music and arts to tech-savy Asian children. He and Tina found themselves growing more attracted to one another over the course of the summer. For Tina, the leading factor for the initial attraction were Mike's abs, which he would often show-off while dancing. As a result of the mutual attraction, Tina broke off her previous relationship with Artie, whom she called a "bad boyfriend", and began one with Mike Chang. The pair of them initially denied the relationship when interviewed by gossip blogger Jacob Ben Israel, but clasp hands confirming the relationship, while Jacob was still videotaping. ]] Mike, Finn, Artie, and Puck help Sam audition for Glee Club. Mike dances and provides backup while Sam sings "Billionaire" and seems impressed by Sam, hoping he'll agree to audition for the rest of the club. Later on, he and Tina go to Mr. Schuester after finding out through their friends in the Asian community, that Rachel had sent possible Glee club recruit Sunshine Corazon to a crackhouse. The three of them furiously interrogate her, confirming that she had sent the girl to the crackhouse solely to make certain that the girl would not join Glee and take solos from her. In Britney/Brittany, Mike and Tina are still dating, which Artie bitterly refers to as "Asian Fusion." They are sitting next to each other during Carl's visit to the Glee Club and they Asian-kiss when it is revealed that neither of them have plaque. Artie, who does have plaque, sadly watches them Asian-kiss. Both Mike and Tina are seen in the background of the restaurant hanging out with Finn and Rachel in Brittany's fantasy of Me Against the Music. However, he was not visibly present during Artie's fantasy of "Stronger" in which the rest of the football team dances with Artie. Mike is shocked when Kurt yells at Mr. Schuester to let loose and stop being so uptight, wearing a look that implies disbelief, but at the same time wanting to laugh. When Rachel shows up to Glee wearing the outfit from "Hit Me Baby One More Time" Mike Chang is staring at her, despite sitting next to Tina. In "Grilled Cheesus", Mike is seen comforting Kurt along with the rest of the Glee Club in regards to his father's heart attack. He dances along to "Only the Good Die Young" with the rest of New Directions and also sings back-up in "One of Us." thumb|300px|right|Mike's First Song Mike finally receives a solo in Duets, where he sings "Sing!" with Tina, though most of his lines in the song are technically spoken. He doesn't feel as if he's a good enough singer to do a real solo in front of everyone, and instead just wants to dance around Tina while she sings. Tina retorts that they have to sing together since they are duet partners, and confesses that she wants a real date at Breadstix, rather than going to an awkward dinner of dim sum with his mother. After his duet project, Mike himself admitted that he is more confident in his singing voice and his social skills, thus asking Mr. Schuester for the role of Dr. Frank-n-furter in The Rocky Horror Glee Show. However, sadly, Mike's parents did not allow him to perform in the musical. Mike still appeared at several of the club meetings and rehearsals for the show. He also dances with Tina and the rest of the club while Dr. Carl Howell auditions for the show with "Whatever Happened to Saturday Night?" At the end of the episode, when Mr. Schuester canceled the play, he then tells the kids that the club can perform the Time Warp for themselves, and Mike played Eddie. In Never Been Kissed, Mike and Asian Tina talk in the hallway and Mike reveals Sam's "cool down" secret which involves thinking of Coach Beiste in a sexual sort of manner. Tina suggests they try it out and begin making out in an empty classroom, which results in Tina imagining the coach and muttering "Beiste." Mike, confused, gets jealous and even goes up to Coach Beiste and tells her to stay away from Tina, thinking that the two have some sort of relationship despite being directly responsible for Tina thinking about Beiste just a short scene earlier. At the boy's meeting to choose their songs for their mash-up, Mike exchanges a worried look with Finn, neither happy about Kurt's idea's being shot down like that, but they both do nothing to defend Kurt. He performs "Stop! In the Name of Love/Free Your Mind" with the rest of the boys as an apology to Coach Beiste for the way they acted around her. During The Substitute, Mike and the rest of the Glee kids are excited by the arrival of Holly Holiday who steps in as temporary glee teacher while Will is sick. He and the rest of the kids perform back-up vocal for her when she sings Forget You and later sings and dances in Umbrella/Singin' In the Rain. His primary performance occurs in Will's illness induced dream sequence, in which he and Will recreate the dancing and physical comedy of Make 'Em Laugh. In Furt, Mike is still seen to be part of the football team even though he was shown not to be present during the team's previous locker room meetings. He, along with Artie (under the request of her their girlfriends as well as their own personal concern of Kurt) stand up to Dave Karofsky in a bid to get him to stop picking on Kurt. Mike is seen slamming the locker door on Karofsky and threatened him to back off from Kurt. Karofsky pushes back, causing Mike to fall into Artie which forced Sam to step in and defend them. Later, he was seen getting massaged and iced by Tina while all of them recall the series of events. He even went on to proclaim that Sam was the "epitome of a leader". His true singing voice can also be heard in this episode's musical number, "Marry You". During the wedding proceedings, he can be heard harmonizing with Tina during one of the first few lines of the chorus. Mike also performs in "Just The Way You Are" along with the rest of New Directions. When Kurt announces that he's transferring to Dalton, Mike, along with the rest of Glee, looks genuinely upset about his leaving. In Special Education, Mike gets recognized for his dancing abilities and was chosen to dance alongside Brittany during the song "Valerie" in sectionals. This results in some insecurities in Tina, who starts to suspect Mike of cheating on her with Brittany. However, Mike seems totally oblivious to this and seemed confused when Tina calls him a jerk before their performance. He then proceeds to produce a stunning dance routine with Brittany in "Valerie". By the end of the episode, he and Tina seem to have sorted out the misunderstanding, and he even comments on her changing back to her original style of clothes. They then share an "Asian kiss", and walk off to join the rest of New Directions in the choir room. Later, he performs with New Directions in "Dog Days Are Over". In A Very Glee Christmas, Mike helps to keep Brittany's belief in Santa Clause alive by sitting on Santa's knee and asking for Channing Tatum to "stop being in stuff." In The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle, Mike is one of the few football players who played both halves of the game. When Tina was tackled to the ground in the first half of the game, he expressed tender concern and immediately rushed to her side, but was relieved to find out that she would be alright. He then went on to dance in the Thriller mashup, and also performed in The Zombies classic, She's Not There. In Silly Love Songs, Mike spends the day with Tina and dedicates P.Y.T. to her (with Artie dedicating the song to Brittany). Later, Mike consoles Tina after she awkwardly breaks down into tears while serenading him. At the end of the episode, both Mike and Tina go to Breadstix and embrace each other while watching the Warblers' performance. Trivia *Often called "other Asian" *His dance partner is usually Tina or Brittany *Considered the best male dancer in glee *Currently dating Tina Cohen-Chang *Just wants to dance *Didn't think he could sing *Can pop and lock *Plays Football *Said he couldn't sing, despite singing in earlier episodes *Wishes Channing Tatum would stop being in stuff *Often goes out to dim sum with his mom and Tina *He is #28 (Season 1), then #22 on the football team (Season 2) Personality and Skills Despite being a member of the football team in Season 1, Mike Chang appears to be much, much less cruel and much more sensitive than the rest of his teammates, having not shown to bully anyone on camera. After joining the Glee Club, Mike Chang seemed to bond quickly with the rest of the group, often praising fellow members and those less popular than he is. He is shown to be good-natured, always smiling at rehearsals and visibly enjoying eacn and every performance from the other members. Mike Chang also seems to favor Glee over football, as seen when the coach ordered the players to choose between the two, he chose Glee. In Season 2, it is further shown that Mike Chang cares a lot for his friends in Glee Club and will go to great lengths to help them out. In Furt, he and Artie confront Karofsky about his treatment of Kurt. Mike Chang and Artie both seemed to be very upset and angry about the bullying. In The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle, he joined the other Glee Club boys in confronting the rest of the football team for slushying Artie. "]]Aside from being a somewhat talented football player, Mike loves to dance, his style being pop-and-lock. While his capacity in singing seems to be sub-par from his performance in Sing! (which was exaggerated), he more than makes up for it in his spectacular dancing performances. His skill is so good, he is asked to choreograph the final number in Sectionals along with Matt, Santana, and Brittany. He also even appeared in a sickness induced dream that Will had, during which they together performed the song Make 'Em Laugh, where they both performed amazing dancing feats, flips and physical comedy. And more recently, he performed several of Michael Jackson's most iconic dance moves during a rendition of P.Y.T. It is revealed in Journey that prior to joining Glee, Mike never allowed himself to dance outside of his bedroom for fear of being made fun of. This can reveal that he just wanted to fit in. Mike also appears to have a low self-confidence, as shown in Duets, not knowing if he could sing or not and thinking he was only good at one thing: dance. After his duet project, Mike himself admitted that he is more confident in his singing voice and his social skills, thus volunteering for the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Glee Show. This growth seems to be evident, given as to how he can be heard singing a song proper in Furt. The musical number performed, "Marry You", had him harmonizing with Tina during the first few lines in the chorus, proving that he is indeed capable of singing. Relationships Tina Cohen-Chang Main article: Tina-Mike Relationship In Season 2, Tina breaks up with Artie and starts to go out with Mike Chang. They developed feelings for one another over the summer, when they were both counselors at Asian Camp in charge of teaching tech-savvy Asian kids about the arts. Tina became enamored by Mike's amazing body and abs during his dance routines. After shrugging off Jacob Ben Israel's notions about their romantic relationship as "racist", they are seen holding hands. Tina and Mike also are the two to figure out that Rachel gave Sunshine directions to go to an inactive crack house thanks to the Asian community being "very tight". After finding out, the two report it immediately to Mr. Schuester. When the Glee club was assigned to do a duet, Tina is determined to win the dinner for two at Breadstix, her reason being that she wanted a normal date with a normal salad, and not the not-so-normal dates with Mike and his mom with the not-so-normal chicken feet salad. Mike suggests that they go to Asian couples therapy, causing Tina to groan at Mike's obsession with all things Asian. Tina then asks Artie to be her duet partner in order to win the free meal at Breadstix. Artie rejects her offer so she resorts to singing "Sing!" with Mike. Mike was afraid to sing at first, initially wanting to prance around Tina instead, but Tina boosts his confidence and supports him all throughout. In the end, they do a great job (Artie is seen with a kind of jealous expression). Songs Solos (in a duet or group number) Season Two * Sing! (Duets) (Duet with Tina) * Marry You (Furt) Quotations ''Main Article: Mike's Quotations '' Category:Characters Category:William McKinley High Football Team members Category:William McKinley High School Students Category:Asian American Characters Category:Supporting characters Category:Male Characters Category:Dancers Category:New Directions Members Category:Supporting characters Category:Mike Chang Category:Harry Shum Jr. Category:Tina Cohen-Chang Category:Jenna Ushkowitz